Bullet trap ideas for recycling lead

[JIMinPHX]

as far as separating...I was thinking ofworking with salt water seperating baths

That's a good idea. I know from scuba diving that ocean water is 34/33 times heavier than lake water. I'll have to see if I can find out what the maximum % solubility of salt is in water & compare that density to rubber.

[JIMinPHX]

I would suggest that you decrease the slope of the steel back plate so that you get the bullet to slide down it rather than smash into it and break up.

That's on my list of things to try next. I was thinking of making some adjustable length legs for the back of my test trap so that I can vary the angle of the back plate until I get what I'm looking for. If you could let me know what angle you used, that would give me an idea of how much range of travel I should build into the adjustable legs.

Thanks,
Jim

[mtgrs737]

My trap has been gone for years now, but I think that it was over 45 degrees. I would make it extra long and concentrate on the stop chamber as that is where bullet is stopped.

[JIMinPHX]

357 Max's idea about using brine to separate crumb rubber from lead should work well. I did a little digging around & found that typical ocean water is 3.5% salt (4 oz salt per gallon) while the maximum % solubility of salt in water at 70 degrees F is about 26%. There is plenty of room to boost up the density of water with lots of salt.

This question still remains - will enough zinc leach out of the rubber to cause problems with recasting the recovered material?

[Lloyd Smale]

thats one problem ive even ran into with my trap that needs some more thought when i have time. I put plywood on the front of it to staple targets too and when you smelt the lead it has ALOT of wood in it and it makes it a real bugger and a mess to resmelt.

[imashooter2]

The problem you are going to run into with separating the rubber from the lead with water is that this lead will be very fine compared to WW. Once wet, it will not dry out easily and you will be forced to run every pot from a cold start just to be sure.

[13Echo]

Not to mention the salt left on the lead unless you carefully rinsed it after separating.

Jerry Liles

[JIMinPHX]

I found some rubber mulch last night. Lowe’s had it. It was $12 & change for a 0.8 cubic foot bag. This stuff is a little different from the black nuggets that the range builder guys seem to favor. The stuff that Lowe’s had is ground into flakes of varying size & it is colored to match redwood. The bag also says that it is recommended as a playground base. I think that this means that this stuff is the 99.9% wire free, highly processed variety. The black chunks may be the less expensive variety or it may have been chosen by the range guys because bigger chunks last longer. I don’t know.

I tried a float test with this stuff. It seems to be of varying density. I threw a handful into a little over a pint of water. At first most of it floated. After I stirred it around a little bit, about 95% sank. Adding an ounce of salt didn’t seem to do much. 2 ounces had some of the stuff on the bottom starting to stand up a little. 3 ounces had most of the material almost at neutral buoyancy in the water. 4 ounces had a fair amount floating. 5 ounces had most of it floating & with 6 ounces of salt in 20 ounces of water, nary a scrap was still on the bottom. This would be my recommended separation mix, 6 ounces of salt to 20 oz. of water or about 38 ounces (almost 2 1/2 pounds) per gallon.

I dumped most of the rest of the mulch into a 7 x 9 x 15” cardboard box, with a couple of cardboard separators in it. That will be my test set up to see how far boolits go through this stuff. I’ll check each cardboard separator for holes between shots to see how far each boolit went. I’ll keep trying hotter rounds until I hit the last separator or run out of ammo to test.

I don’t think that I’ll have problems with lead dust here. I don’t think that this box trap will break up the boolits. I also don’t see a problem with salt contaminating the recovered material. A fresh water rinse shortly after recovery should be enough to fix that.

I’ve also got my original steel trap, boolit trap Jr., set up with a nut hanging on the end of a string & a few hand drawn marks to show what angle the back plate is at. I want to try it at a bunch of different angles & see what angle I need to have so that the boolit gets into the decelerator chamber before it shatters. I’ll bring both the boolit box & boolit trap Jr. with me the next time I get out to my shooting area. It should be an educational day.

[buster]

I tried to build a trap with a hinged back stop out of a old fireplace insert but it did'nt work. Thought it would soften the impact, so I tried to slow it down before it hit with two flaps of 1/2 in. rubber,but that did'nt work either.I gave up and am using a 30 in. locust log. I hope to split and burn it to retreive the lead.

[JIMinPHX]

I just made a smaller version of the box trap & tried it with a pellet rifle. A 5mm pellet at 700fps went through the cardboard separators at 1" & 3" depth, but not the one at 5". The skirts of the pellets were bent a little, but the noses looked like new except for the points being dulled a little & the finish now having a sandy texture. I put them back in the gun & fired them again. The second time they did not pass the 3" marker. The skirts were more heavily bent on one side. I don't think that they were flying straight. I think that they were partially sideways when they hit the box & the larger broadside area is why they didn't penetrate as far.

[JIMinPHX]

I was able to separate the pellets from the media by dumping it into a large box & shaking it around. The pellets went right to the bottom. When I tipped the box & gave it another gentle shake, they rolled right out to the side. I don’t think that I’m going to need the brine.

[Scrounger]

I was able to separate the pellets from the media by dumping it into a large box & shaking it around. The pellets went right to the bottom. When I tipped the box & gave it another gentle shake, they rolled right out to the side. I don’t think that I’m going to need the brine.

Just like panning for gold...

Could you use the bigger chunks of rubber mulch and simply screen the lead out with half inch screen?

[JIMinPHX]

Just like panning for gold...

Exactly!

The only problem that I see with screening, might be that small chunks of rubber are going to break off as this stuff gets used. that's just what I expect to see though. I will not know what's actually going to happen until I try it.

[Scrounger]

Exactly!

The only problem that I see with screening, might be that small chunks of rubber are going to break off as this stuff gets used. that's just what I expect to see though. I will not know what's actually going to happen until I try it.

That is the point at which your salt water bath may become useful.

[Ricochet]

Buy the salt in those big bags meant for deicing and it'll be reasonably inexpensive.

[JIMinPHX]

Buy the salt in those big bags meant for deicing and it'll be reasonably inexpensive.

We don't have that here in Phoenix.

[Ricochet]

Well, you're just really missing something!

[fishhawk]

water softner salt...you do have water?

[JIMinPHX]

Well, you're just really missing something!

Actually, I see enough of it when I visit Rogersville. That is down in your neck of the woods, isn't it? There's some pretty country down off the Lee Highway & 25e.

Also, I've spent some time up around St. Paul, Chicago & Buffalo. The heavy snow in places like that is one thing that I don't miss.

[JIMinPHX]

water softner salt...you do have water?

Actually, Phoenix is in the Sonoran desert. Water is pretty scarce here too!

I was just joshin around about the lack of ice (& water) around here. I'm sure that I can find bulk rock salt or water softener if I go looking for it.

It is kind of strange though. If I go into an auto parts store here in town & ask for windshield washer fluid that doesn't freeze, a lot of the guys don't know what I'm talking about. Most of them don't seem to carry ice scrapers either. If I go north a few hours to Flagstaff, all that changes.